Richard Schirrman wrote about a 1915 Christmas truce,
that occurred after the Christmas bells sounded in a nearby village.
Hearing the bells, the German and French soldiers ceased fire
and visited each other through unused trench tunnels.
They exchanged "wine, cognac, and cigarettes
for Westphalian black bread, biscuits and ham."Source: wikipedia.org search "Christmas Truce"

The University of Aberdeen has a copy
of a Private Ronald MacKinnon's 1916 letter from the front,
in which he relates the following:"Our German friends were quite friendly.
They came over to see us and we traded bully beef for cigars."
A 2005 French film Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas)
depicts one of the early truces between French, Scottish, and German troops.
The Christmas Truces are fascinating examples of
peace on earth, goodwill toward men.
Even if temporary ones.
<>

were regularly burnt, and the mistletoe with its white berries hung up,

to the imminent peril of all the pretty housemaids.*(Note: a clog is an archaic word meaning piece of wood, sometimes even a tree root. Source: Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, cited here)

So I thought I'd see what I could find out about these Christmas games.

Fortunately, I'm not the first person who has had this idea,

so it was relatively easy to find an explanation for each.

Some of these Christmas games are a little strange by today's standards,

but a few were still played when I was a kid.

photo courtesy of morguefile.com

Hoodman Blind is blind man's bluff, where someone is blindfolded

and then tries to touch the players around him.

Wikipedia.org says this game was played in Henry VIII's court in the 16th century.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The gifts of the Magi were three: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
We all know why gold was valuable,
but what about frankincense and myrrh?

First of all, both frankincense and myrrh are resins
harvested from a couple of very scrubby trees, historically in Arabia and Somalia.
Each tree exudes a sticky resin that dries into tears;
myrrh turns reddish brown after several days.
Frankincense is traditionally harvested in the autumn,
according to Gus W. Van Beek,
author of the article "Frankincense and Myrrh"
published in an edition of The Biblical Archaeologist,
Volume 23, No. 3, Sept 1960, pp. 82 - 86.

This limited harvest helps explain in part the high demand for it centuries ago.
Van Beek says that frankincense was primarily valued
in ancient times because of its fragrance
and for its use as an ingredient in incense used for religious offerings.
The incense was regarded as holy, so it was reserved for honoring Yahweh.
But not only was frankincense important for temple rites,
archaeological evidence reveals numerous small frankincense burners
in homes in Egypt and Palestine.
Van Beek interprets the prevalence of individual burners
as evidence for frankincense burning during individual devotions.
But frankincense was also commonly burned during funeral rites
and was even found in King Tutankhamun's grave.
Frankincense was also valued for medicinal purposes,
including as an antitode to poison.
These multiple uses and limited availability
may help explain the great demand for frankincense
before and after the common era.

Frankincense Tears

Van Beek says that myrrh was also used for incense,

but not as frequently as frankincense.

Myrrh was primarily valued for its fragrance.

In Assyria, it was burned in a censer over a sick bed,

Yet, Van Beek says myrrh was equally important as a cosmetic and perfume.

Beauty regimens relied on the perfume and lotions made of myrrh.

For Van Beek this is evidence that the ladies of the day

regarded myrrh as a mark of "gracious living."

Myrrh also had multiple medicinal uses

and was an important substance for embalming and mummification.

Myrrh resin
Frankincense and myrrh were fragrant, medicinal, and funerary,
and as Van Beek suggests, the two had many more daily and ritual uses
that are lost to modern researchers.
Once a year harvest, long trips along trade routes, and universal appeal
made both resins extremely valuable.
Fit for a king.
<>

Saturday, December 15, 2012

When the holiday season arrives,
some people get giddy with excitement.
They love the season so much,
that not only do they "deck the halls,"
they also dress up a few other things too.
Here's a house tied up with a bright red bow:

photo courtesy of morguefile.com

I suppose it all started with people dressing up themselves first.
Men would wear red or green or both.
Decades ago, there was a man
who wore bright green pants and a bright red shirt every Christmas.
He didn't seem to be a particularly upbeat guy,
so I was never sure if he was deliberately trying to look like a poinsettia
or if it was just accidental.

In his defense, many men do choose holiday apparel, if less vibrant;
perhaps they put on Christmas-colored socks
or don a tie with Santas or candy canes,
maybe a pullover sweater with a snowflake motif across the chest,
but they usually don't go as far as women do.

Women have always been able to gild themselves more than men could.
For the season, some make a pilgrimage to craft stores for supplies,
then decorate sweatshirts and sweaters with Christmas symbols
like Santa, elves, Christmas trees, and reindeer--
all over-frosted with puff paint, glitter, sequins, little bells, and ribbons.

But it soon became apparent that decorating houses and clothing wasn't enough.
People started to festoon their cars and trucks
with a cheery Christmas wreath on the grill.
Fair enough.
But from there, things got rapidly out of hand.

Now there is a newer trend:
dressing one's vehicle to make it look like a reindeer.

This involves two large chenille or soft felt antlers

protruding from both the driver's and passenger's doors,

and in a nod to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,

one very shiny red "nose" on the front grill of the car.
There are a couple of photos of a reindeer car
on this blogpost by Kathleen Kirk:

Just when I thought I'd seen it all,
yesterday I found myself in a parking garage next to a car
that had what looked to me like a couple of very large pig ears
sticking out of the windows.

I had to think a minute:
how did pig ears have anything to do with Christmas?
I tried to look casual as I walked to the front of the car
and glanced over at the grill.
And there affixed was a small red- and green-striped elf hat.
Considering the size of the piggish elf ears,
I would have expected the elf hat to be much larger.
But I give them high points for breaking out of the car-as-reindeer mold.
Here's a photo of an elf car wearing the kit, on sale at sears.com:

photo: sears.com

One would think it would end there.
It didn't.
Driving home last night,
I was behind a car with what appeared to be a small decorated box
dangling from the exhaust pipe.
After we stopped for a traffic light, I was able to see what it was:
a small gingerbread house.
Dangling.
From the tail pipe.

Americans' creativity--and willingness to embarrass ourselves--
gives us a certain charm.
So I can't wait to see what some innovator comes up with next.
Perhaps someone will figure out how to make their car look like a Yule log.
Or a fruitcake.
<>

I went outside and hung the last outdoor Christmas wreath on my house.

And that was when I noticed the snowdrops

nestled at the trunk of the river birch tree,

their gentle white arriving just in time for Christmas.

I can't say how many times over the last decade

I have glanced through the window

at the forlorn landscape wrought by bleak winter days,

only to lay eyes on these delicate blossoms:

What a lovely feeling they give;
their appearance always surprises me.
And I can't help but feel optimistic when I see them.

Even though December is when all the poinsettias appear in stores,
thanks to our climate here in the Shire
we have outside flowers just coming into bloom at the same time.
Besides snowdrops, we enjoy pansies,
Lenten roses, and camellias through the winter.

Here are some beautiful Lenten roses,
also called Christmas roses:

photo courtesy of morguefile.com

Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring once wrote
that there is something
"infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--
the assurance that dawn comes after night,
and spring after winter."

And to that I would add,
flowers that bloom just in time for Christmas.
<>